Daily Times

Known as paradise on earth for its beautiful valleys, Kashmir hosts a Muslim-majority population trapped between the claims made by both India and Pakistan, which were born out of the unfinished business of the partition of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. Among the continuous issues of the partition was the accession of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. The infamous Radcliffe award provided land routes to India that would, in future, justify claims of the geographic contiguity with India if Kashmir decided its fate of accession.

It was stipulated in the 3rd June Plan that while deciding its fate, the princely state will consider the majority of the population and geographic contiguity. Lord Mountbatten, as the Governor-General of India, wrote a letter to Maharaja and said that “Consistently with their policy that in the case of any State where the issue of accession has been the subject of dispute, the question of accession should be decided in accordance to the wishes of the people of the State, it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader the question of the State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people.”

Being a Muslim-majority state, Kashmir was expected to join Pakistan. Yet, the Maharaja was more inclined to remain independent, which was aggressively opposed by the local population and warring tribes, who declared war against the Maharaja rule. When the tribesmen reached Srinagar, Maharaja fled to India and subsequently appealed to the Indian government for military help. On October 26, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the then prime minister of India got the Instrument of Accession signed from Hari Singh. Since then, Jammu and Kashmir have remained an apple of discord not only between India and Pakistan but also between the Kashmiri people and India. To give a legal cover to this occupation, India kept Kashmir under special constitutional status by introducing article 370 into its January 1950 constitution. Unlike other princely states, the state of Jammu and Kashmir retained some degree of constitutional autonomy in all matters except defence, foreign relations and communication.

As a matter of principle, plebiscites (or referenda) were supposed to be held in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, as were held in other areas during the transfer of power in August 1947 in the two areas. In the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), now KP, which had a Congress Government despite a Muslim-majority population, and Sylhet, a Muslim-majority district of the non-Muslim majority Province of Assam, people decided their fate through plebiscites to join either India or Pakistan. As Kashmir had a Muslim majority and was geographically contiguous to Pakistan, it was anticipated that the former would join the latter.

Nehru, who proclaimed himself as a secular leader, believed that having a Muslim-majority state in India would help India develop a secular character. Deliberately, the Boundary Commission, led by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British Judge, awarded two Muslim majority tehsils in Gurdaspur district to India, providing it with overland access to Kashmir. Otherwise, the claims of India over Kashmir were not justifiable and Kashmir could have ended up with road access, only to Pakistan.

Pakistan’s first move in Kashmir was to announce unofficial support for the fighting forces; hoping that Maharajah’s forces would be easily subdued as the Kashmiri people would turn to guerrilla warfare, which was already started by the invading tribal Lashkar. Maharaja, however, did seek Indian military help after signing the Instrument of Accession. Nehru sent in military troops to liberate Kashmir and establish control over the valley and most parts of Jammu & Ladakh before the UN asked for an implementation of a cease-fire line.

Ideologues argue that Pakistan should put off normal relations with India “until and unless Kashmir Issue has been settled.”

Since then, Kashmir has become an ideological issue between the Hindus of India and Muslims of Pakistan. Ideologues argue that Pakistan should abandon normal relations with India until it agrees to a just settlement of the Kashmir issue. Both the states have fought two major wars in 1965 and 1971, and two low-intensity conflicts in 1948 and 1999. Line of Control (LOC), established after the Simla Agreement in 1972, is used as a working boundary in Kashmir. However, the LOC has always been active for cross border firing and persistent escalations.

On the other hand, the ideological nature of the Kashmiri freedom struggle has received fascist-like hatred in India in the shape of Hindutva. This ideology has its dynamics of Shivaism, the superiority of race and creed, the superiority of blood, and the utter distaste for tolerance and accommodation. It is dangerous to the core and it aims to destroy and kill anything, which is not in sync with its worldview. Hindutva preachers, RSS and BJP, even when they were not in power, had been involved in activities that exposed their worldview to make India Akhand Bharat. In this regard, the Samjhota Express blast 2007, demolition of the Babari Mosque in 1992, the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and the Muzaffar Nagar riots in 2013 show that India is moving towards extremism.

The culture of lynching and initiation of discrimination against Muslims and Christians is taking its roots in India for the last five or six years. Under Narendra Modi’s rule, the lynching of Muslims and burning churches show that the Hindutva ideology is taking over India. Modi has electrified his Hindu-nationalist supporters, by bringing Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state to heel. Article 370 gave the Kashmir the right of its constitution and autonomy to make their laws in all matters except defence, communication and foreign affairs. Article 35A granted autonomy and forbade Indians outside the state from permanently settling, buying the property and holding local government jobs. These measures have kept the demography of Kashmir in favour of the Muslim majority.

Pakistan and India are standing in a face-off for seven decades. The Kashmir dispute is becoming worst from bad. Not only it has held back the two countries from realising their true potentials, but it has also been holding the security of South Asia hostage. India is the state with bigger numbers, it should realise that the first step towards agreeable peace and resolution comes from the bigger states. Instead, India has been hampering the voices of the Kashmiri people through brutal state force. This mindset is not only doing worse for India, Pakistan, the Kashmir cause, but the whole region; leaving no room for constructive measures but militancy. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”

The writer hold master degree in International Relations from QAU and works as Research Officer at CPGS, Islamabad